Include Custom Assets When Rebalancing Portfolio

I recently downloaded and installed a free update to Quicken - Premier. My Version is now R30.9, Build 27.1.30.9. Imagine my pleasant surprise when I discovered the new feature, Custom Asset Classes! I have been waiting/hoping for this for years. I use Quicken as my primary tool in portfolio rebalancing and for years I've had to kluge asset classes, calling Equity REITS "Other" and Mortgage REITS "Global Bonds", and just living within the 7 asset classes Quicken provides. So last weekend I created new custom asset classes called Equity REITs and Mortgage REITs and laboriously recategorized all the underlying securities appropriately. What I've noticed since then is that:

1) When I go to Investing, Allocations, Portfolio Rebalancer, I don't see the new custom asset classes: I see the original 7 asset classes plus "Unclassified". Also, the "Off by % points" and "Adjustment to Reach Target" columns contain values that are wildly off -- it appears, roughly, by the value of the securities in my custom asset classes. So far, my workaround has been to use an outside calculator to figure the correct amounts. Has anyone discovered a way to get the tool to work correctly or do this within Quicken?

2) When I go to Investing, Portfolio (Show Value, Group by Asset class) I see all of my investments as expected, but I also see Custom3, Custom4, Custom5, and (as of this morning) Custom6, all with 0.00 across the table in all columns. It appears to be adding a new, unnamed Custom Asset class to this view every time I open Quicken. This is not a show-stopper, it just represents some unnecessary clutter that it would be nice to get rid of: same with existing asset classes (e.g., Global Bonds, Other) that also have 0.00 values across all columns. Is there any way to hide unused asset classes in this view?

Thanks,
Mike

rbjrrose1

I agree with #2 - it would be nice to clean up those drop down menus.

Bob_L

I assume you all realize that the calculated expected return and expected risk now make no sense. (I for one found that useful).

Now that we are into a "roll your own" allocation approach, I think it would make sense to provide users the opportunity to input their own expected return and expected variance for each asset class to then produce a weighted average expected return and weighted average expected risk.

Otherwise, the calculation now being shown for expected return and risk should IMO be removed.

After the update to 30.10 I created a custom asset class, Mid Cap Stocks, and assigned it to the appropriate investments. After doing so the allocation page showed the new asset class correctly including my target allocations.
Today when I opened Quicken my target allocations were gone. I reset them and the asset allocations were now correct, including the out of balance percents.
I then clicked the Rebalance Portfolio button and noticed that the Current % column in that window was incorrect making the rebalance amounts incorrect as well. The new Mid Cap Stocks asset class was not listed and the total current value was wrong. However the data in the graphs below the table were correct.

You'll notice other things off and other bugs associated with use of the new Custom Asset Classes. See https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7883472/two-bugs-with-custom-asset-classes-portfolio-rebalance-tool-and-portfolio-view#latest. Near as I can tell, the pie charts and percentages under Investing, Allocations are accurate (disregard the Expected Return and Expected Risk at the bottom of course). Everything else, not so much. Why hire usability testers when you can just use paying customers? 9_9

Thanks. I hope these bugs get addressed quickly. And I agree with you on the testing. As a former programmer I know you can't find every bug when testing but these were obvious things to check and should have been caught before rollout.

I'm so glad I posted here: two weeks, no response from Quicken, and I'm stuck tediously recategorizing dozens of REITs back to "Other" and "Global Bonds" so that I can use Quicken's Rebalance Portfolio tool instead of a calculator. ...and my Portfolio view is permanently cluttered with useless, empty asset classes. Next time you roll out a new "feature" please have someone -- anyone -- spend five minutes using it rather than testing it on paying customers.

Soldino

I'm in the same boat, snowmp. I would add that it is also bad timing being EOY and all. Quicken is now my primary tool for portfolio re-balancing and my hands are tied where all my Custom Asset Classes not calculating correctly. I, in retrospect, have over-committed by editing all the custom slots for various asset classes (Commodities, Reits, Alternatives) and am reluctant at this point to backpedal. I tried loading a backup to recover but the Target Allocation still wipes clean since the updated version is still installed.
My biggest issue is with the 'Actual' allocation column in the Allocations tab of the Investing tab showing 0% on several (but not all) of the user-assigned Custom Asset Classes. I have tried to no avail to figure out what these classes reporting 0% have in common (other than being custom). I have tried changing their names, I have tried moving their order, changing the underlying security 'type', changing whether or not asset class information is download, etc. I did discover that running an Asset Allocation Report gives a more accurate result but haven"t found a way to compare to Target in a report format.
I had high hopes that the recent R30.14 update would take care of this problem but does not appear to have done so. Interestingly, it includes a long-awaited FBAR reporting module to the Tax Planner which, if history can be our guide, sounds useful but will also turn out to be buggy.
I guess I'll be going Robo for my EOY re-balance if this is not sorted out soon.

Jim_Harman

Definitely weird. I am seeing the same issue in a test file.

Allocations to custom asset classes are shown on the main Investing > Allocations page and are included in the Investing > Asset Allocation report and elsewhere in Quicken.

But if you go to the Allocations page and click on Rebalance Portfolio, the custom allocations are included in the chart at the bottom but not in the extremely useful table at the top of the page.

Note this problem is in addition to the previously reported issue where previously entered target allocations are lost.

Yes, I just noticed this as well. I was wondering why the rebalance recommendations were off compared to what I expected... then I noticed that the total dollar amounts were different between the graph and the table. It would be great to have this fixed!

I'm also hoping that we'll be able to use the Rebalance tool with these custom asset classes. It was confusing that the recommendations were contrary to what the graph was showing... until I saw that the total amount for the recommendation table was less than the total amount for the graph... as the custom asset classes were excluded from the calculations. It would be great to have this fixed!

I guess this is the same thing being discussed at https://community.quicken.com/discussion/comment/20135297

Quicken_Tyka

Hello @David20

Thank you for taking the time to visit the Community to report your issue, although I apologize that you have not received a follow-up response.

If you have not done so already, I would also recommend navigating to Help > Report a Problem to report this issue.

This report will not receive a direct response but the information will be used to investigate and research this issue further.

Thank you,
-Quicken Tyka

Thanks @Quicken_Tyka I followed your instructions and submitted a report just now.

Has this been fixed yet?

awroberts

I was able to remove the Custom Asset Classes from the Investing Portfolio view by changing the view's Group By setting, then switching back to group by Asset Class

Again, has this been fixed yet?

Steven Schoenstein

@Quicken_Tyka - I don't see a "Report a Problem" link on the Help page "https://www.quicken.com/support#windows". I there a different page or link I should be looking for?

Jim_Harman

Report a Problem is on the in product Help drop-down menu.

q_lurker

I see that this discussion has now been changed to an Idea post. As such interested users should vote this Idea up if they see fit. (See original post to vote it up.)

MrQRav

:# The portfolio rebalancer is now useless with the new custom asset classes. Really bad form Quicken team. Luckily I made a backup before reclassifying my assets.

awroberts said:

I was able to remove the Custom Asset Classes from the Investing Portfolio view by changing the view's Group By setting, then switching back to group by Asset Class

Finally ran across this today when I took another run at the problem. Thanks so much! This works. I've been staring at a bunch of unused asset classes (including Crypto and Alternative recently) in my INVESTING > Portfolio view *forever*. Group by anything else and then coming back to Group by Asset class apparently resets the view so that only asset classes with securities assigned to them are shown.

This is really bad form. This is a bug, not an idea. Why have custom asset classes if we can't use them in re-balancing our portfolios. I just voted on the idea and came up number 11. Sad state of affairs if only eleven of us want to use them to re-balance our portfolios.

September 2024, coming up on four years after the roll-out of this feature, and still no fix. I've added a couple more asset classes due to recent experience with inflation and the Fed's policy response (TIPS and commodities). The pie chart on the asset allocation page accurately shows Actual, Target, and Difference — which is helpful since I still have to use those values in a calculator to rebalance my portfolio. Portfolio Rebalancer still shows asset classes I don't own (e.g., "Global Bonds"), none of the custom asset classes I've created, and "Adjustment to Reach Target" values that are wildly off. I no longer recommend Quicken to family and friends.

Jim_Harman

I agree this is a longstanding bug. [adding] or you might call it a partially implemented feature.

Forum Moderators sometimes review issues discussed here and refer them to Development, but if you want Quicken to work on a problem, I recommend you contact Support via phone. Be sure the support agent understands the problem and gives you a ticket number for future reference.

You should also use the Help > Report a Problem menu in Quicken to submit the issue online. In your submission, be as clear and thorough as possible. Reference the ticket number and provide a link to this discussion. Provide step by step instructions to reproduce the problem. You will not get a response to an electronic submission, but they say they review and prioritize the submissions.